Paula Kirsten (b. 1990s Delmenhorst, Germany) is an expressionist, abstract painter.
Her work investigates the process of emotional regulation from a neurodivergent perspective, exploring how bodies and minds navigate societal expectations and power structures. Through layered, multidimensional surfaces, her paintings make visible what is usually contained or suppressed, reflecting the pressure that accumulates when emotional and sensory experiences are continuously masked.
The paintings function as protected spaces in which these regulatory mechanisms are temporarily suspended. What must remain controlled externally is allowed to surface as tension, fragmentation, and intensity. Rather than expressing emotion, her work renders the act of adaptation and regulation itself tangible, examining how individuals move within, negotiate, and resist frameworks of control.
Her paintings challenge fixed symbolic meaning and narrative closure. They invite viewers to experience ambiguity as embodied knowledge, situating perception and sensation as insights into the lived entanglement of self and society.
Paula lives and works in Berlin.